The invention concerns a hot rolling mill, which consists of at least one continuous casting installation, followed by a furnace, a roughing stand, and, via a strip edge guide, a roller-hearth soaking furnace, as well as a finishing train.
A hot rolling mill of this type has basically proved successful. However, it has been found that, in the event of a disruption, whether as the result of problems with the stock or problems with the equipment, the desired interventions to restore normal operation cannot be carried out easily and especially not quickly enough, which means that, in such a case, it becomes necessary to discontinue the casting operation. The restarting of the rolling process thus requires considerable extra time.
Furthermore, it may be desirable, either during a disruption or during normal operation of the mill, to remove pre-strip material.
Therefore, the object of the invention is to reduce disruptions to a minimum and, both in the case of a disruption and in the case of the desired removal of pre-strip material, to make it possible to remove from the normal rolling operation the pre-strip that is lined up in the roller-hearth soaking furnace after the roughing stand.
This object is achieved with the features of the invention specified in claim 1. The lengthened strip edge guide protects the second furnace from damage by a saber-shaped course of the pre-strip, and early detection is possible by observation of the edges of the pre-strip. The pre-strip can be removed from the second furnace through its swiveling cover. It is advantageous for this cover to be subdivided in the longitudinal direction of the second furnace, so that pre-strip to be removed can be grasped not over its entire length, but rather only over a partial length. Accordingly, a lateral discharging device and a cut-to-length device that can be pushed into the furnace are provided, which can be moved laterally alongside the furnace. Especially if a device that triggers an emergency stop device or emergency cutters is assigned to the devices for determining the slab edge position, when an overly strong saber effect is detected, emergency cutting of the slabs or the pre-strips can be initiated before or in the furnace.